Samsung will not be holding its usual press conference at the start of Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona. After talking to people "familiar with the matter", Pocket-lint can confirm that Samsung won't be holding its usual Unpacked event at the world's largest mobile phone trade show at the end of February.

The company won't in fact, we've been told, be holding any official unveiling event in Barcelona, but will have a presence on the show floor.

Rumours had hinted that Samsung would be using MWC 2013 to reveal the Samsung Galaxy S4, the supposed follow-up to the hugely popular and award-winning SGS3, and while that could still be on the cards, the lack of an event makes it highly unlikely.

The unannounced and unconfirmed Samsung Galaxy S4 device is now likely to be launched after the trade show at its own event, suggesting that Samsung is probably following a similar launch schedule to that of the SGS3 in 2012, with a separate spectacle in late April or early May 2013.

Samsung declined to comment when we asked for clarification on its Mobile World Congress 2013 press conference plans.

The news comes after HTC also announced that it won't be holding its traditional MWC press event, opting instead for its own event on 19 February in London and New York.

That leaves Mobile World Congress fairly dry on the traditional press launches and big announcements. ZTE, Huawei, Nokia and Asus have all confirmed they will be making announcements at the show.

But with Sony Mobile already going early with the Xperia Z at CES, and without anything from Apple, Samsung or HTC, the show's importance as a platform for consumer device launches might be on the wane.